Whitcombe / Whitscombe / Widecome
Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Standing permission
Results: 8 records
view of font - west side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph by Gerald Duke in [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font - east side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph by Gerald Duke in [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font and cover in context
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph by Gerald Duke in [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of font - south side
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph by Gerald Duke in [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of basin - interior
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph by Gerald Duke in [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
design element - architectural - arcade - blind - pointed arches
Scene Description: probably 16 in total, two per side of the octagonal basin, though one side is against the wall and cannot be checked
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph by Gerald Duke in [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
view of church exterior - southwest view
Scene Description: Source caption: "Whitcombe Church. In the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, Whitcombe Church is no longer in regular use for worship, though it remains a consecrated building."
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © John Lord, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph 24 August 2010 by John Lord [https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2031054] [accessed 3 June 2024]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.5
view of font - plan, elevation, section and sketch
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Gerald Duke, 2008
Image Source: digital photograph by Gerald Duke in [www.martinstown.co.uk]
Copyright Instructions: Standing permission
INFORMATION
Font ID: 06666WHI
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 13th century (early) [the four colonnettes of the base are of a later date] [composite font], Early English [altered]
Cognate Fonts: A group of Dorset fonts noted in Long (1923) including: "West Almer, Canford Magna, Cranborne, East Morden, Hazelbury Bryan, Shapwick, Whitcombe, Wimborne Minster and Wootton Glanville." [see also FontNotes]
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, W end of the nave, S side
Church Address: Whitcombe, Dorchester DT2 8NY, United Kingdom
Site Location: Dorset, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Whitcombe is located off the A352, 2 km SE of Dorchester
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Salisbury
Historical Region: Hundred of Cullifordtree [in Domesday]
Additional Comments: altered font: the four colonnettes of the base are of a later date
Font Notes:
Click to view
There is an entry for this Whitcombe [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SY7188/whitcombe/] [accessed 3 June 2024; it mentions neither priest nor church in it. Noted in Branes (1891): "Font: 12th century, the basin of Purbeck marble, and the central pillars are original, the small pillars later." Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period [NB: C&H have "Whitscombe" as the name of the village. The current name is "Whitcombe"]. Noted in Long (1923) as a good example of "a considerable number of Early English fonts in this county [...] mostly of Purbeck marble, a fact which leads one to suppose that the majority were constructed in or near the Isle of Purbeck, and exported in considerable quantities to other parts of Dorset, and even much further afield. The type consists of an octagonal bowl, with shallow pointed arcading on the sides. The bowl is usually mounted on a thick central, and four or eight smaller detached angle shafts, standing on a low plain base." Dated in Mee (1939), Dru Drury (1949), Betjeman (1958) and in the RCHM (1970) to the 13th century. In Newman & Pevsner (1972): "Font. Octagonal, of Purbeck marble, C13, with two flat blank arches each side." Noted in the Church Gazetteer [www.visitchurches.org] as "a fine 13th century Purbeck marble font". Listed in Leach (1975) as a font made of Purbeck marble; "four subsidiary shafts". In Stanier (2004). Duke (2004) [www.martinstown.co.uk] notes that the four colonnettes of the base are of a later date, and remarks the similarity of this font with the one at Milton Abbas [originally from Milton Abbey], and to the shared design elements with the larger fonts at nearby Martinstown and Stinsford. The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SY7165488311] notes: "Parish Church. C12 nave, with some later refacing and C18 rebuilding [...] font, Purbeck marble, octagonal bowl, each face with a two two centred arched panels, circular stem with 4 detached circulat [sic] shafts of later date, octagonal base, early C13."
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk] for the information on, and photographs of this font
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 542202 5615934
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 50.6937, -2.4025
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 50° 41′ 37.32″ N, 2° 24′ 9″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, limestone (Purbeck marble)
Font Shape: octagonal, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal
Drainage System: centre hole in basin
Drainage Notes: lead lining
Rim Thickness: 10 cm*
Diameter (inside rim): 60 cm*
Diameter (includes rim): 80 cm*
Basin Depth: 26 cm*
Basin Total Height: 35 cm*
Height of Base: 50 cm*
Font Height (less Plinth): 85 cm*
Notes on Measurements: * [all measurements courtesy of Gerald Duke [www.martinstown.co.uk]]
LID INFORMATION
Date: modern
Material: wood
Apparatus: no
Notes: flat, plain, with cross finial/handle
REFERENCES
- Barnes, W. Miles, "A brief historical & descriptive sketch of the churches in the rural deanery of Dorchester (Dorchester portion)", XII, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1891, pp. [36]-70; p. 52
- Betjeman, John, An American's Guide to English Parish Churches (including the Isle of Man), New York: McDowell, Obolensky, 1958, p. 150
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 197
- Dru Drury, G., "The use of Purbeck in mediaeval times", 70, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1949, pp. 74-98; p. 82
- Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, Royal Commission on Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, London: H.M. Stationary Office, 1970, vol. 2. pt. 2: 375-376
- Leach, Rosemary, A Investigation into the use of Purbeck Marble in Medieval England, Hartlepool: E.W. Harrisons & Sons, 1975, p. 78
- Long, E.T., "Dorset church fonts", 44, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, 1923, pp. 62-76; p. 69, 76
- Mee, Arthur, The King's England. Dorset: Thomas Hardy's Country, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1939, p. 287
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, Dorset, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972, p. 458
- Stanier, Peter, Dorset's archaeology: archaeology in the landscape, 4000BC to AD1700, Tiverton: Dorset Books, 2004, p. 137